'Even 240 Might've Been Chased' - KL Rahul Puts Blame On Bowlers After Scoring 29 Off 33 Balls
SRH hands a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to LSG in IPL 2024 (X.com)
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul was shocked and gutted as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) wrapped up the 166-run chase inside 9.4 overs to register a stunning 10-wicket victory.
KL Rahul knew LSG were a few runs short as 165 was not enough on Hyderabad's wicket. However, not even in his wildest dreams, Rahul must have expected to get humiliated this badly.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma made a mockery out of LSG bowlers to not only register quick fifties but also complete the chase inside the first 10 overs.
Needless to say, KL Rahul was still wrapping his head around the humiliation during the post-game interview. He said he couldn't fathom as to how both SRH openers were middling every single delivery without any error whatsoever.
"I'm lost for words. We've seen that kind of batting on TV in a few games before, but this was just unreal batting. I have no words to describe how well they were hitting the ball. Everything seemed to find the middle of the bat, and yeah, I guess kudos to their skill level," Rahul said.
KL Rahul acknowledged that Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma must have worked hard to be able to hit like this. But fairly, Rahul felt SRH didn't even allow LSG enough time to understand the conditions and just disappeared in the chase.
"I'm sure all of them have worked really, really hard on their ability to hit sixes, and you can see that in action. I mean, they didn't even give us a chance to see what the wicket was playing like in the second innings," he added.
Rahul felt wickets in the powerplay could have made a little difference, but unfortunately, LSG failed in that department.
"I think the pitch didn't change too much, but when you have two batters coming in with that kind of mindset and freedom, and they just tee off from ball one and everything's connecting, it's really hard to stop them. The only way to stop teams like that is to get wickets in the powerplay. Unfortunately, if you don't do that, you're in trouble. And that's what we experienced today," Rahul further said.
However, KL Rahul admitted that while they were 40-50 runs short in the first innings, the kind of intent SRH showed, even 240 would have been chased tonight, meaning LSG's defeat was inevitable.
"When you lose, people start questioning the decisions made. We ended up with 40-50 runs less than we needed. Losing wickets in the powerplay made it hard to build momentum. Ayush and Nicky batted well to get us to 166. Even if we had scored 240, they might have chased it down too," he concluded.
Notably, LSG's loss has officially knocked out bottom placed Mumbai Indians from the IPL 2024 season playoff race.